Repair head for heddles



Oct. 12, 1954 w THQRPE I I 2,691,389

REPAIR HEAD FOR HEDDLES Original Filed April 6, 1950 INVENTOR, 25 W'ZZiamEIhQr U 25 .Aft-o rngy.

Patented Oct. 12, 1954 REPAIR HEAD FOR HEDDLES William H. Thorpe, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to Walker Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia,

Original application April 6, 1950, Serial No. 154,347, now Patent No.

2,646,825, dated July 28, 1953. Divided and this application April 18, 1951, Serial No. 221,580

11 Claims. (01. 13946) The object of the invention is to provide improvements in heddles broadly, but more specifically in a repair head to replace the original loop, hook, or other form of head of a heddle when worn and/or broken, without the necessity of having to replace the entire heddle with its attendant shut-down of the loom, corresponding decrease in production and resultant loss in income, this application being a division of Serial No. 154,347, filed April 6, 1950, now Patent No. 2,646,825.

Heddles, like many other forms of fast moving mechanisms, especially when characterized by reciprocatory motion, and even more so when that motion is substantially if not fully vertical, frequently wear through and break especially at some point of the end loop or eyes, and most frequently at the base of theupper loop, due to the force of gravity during each downward motion being added to the inherent inertia of the heddle, as its movement is suddenly arrested preparatory to movementin the-opposite direction.

Such wear is most pronounced where the sides of the upper loop in particular are in constant engagement with the heddle-supporting bars, and at least in some positions encounter any lock hooks, studs and/or slide hooks thatmay be present for the purpose of operatively supporting the heddle bars with respect to frame rails, or with respect to an auxiliary bar that is frequently interposed between the heddle bar and the neighboring rail.

Heretofore, when a heddle bar has broken, it has been necessary to stop the loom, break the warp end, remove it from the eye of the heddle and lay it on the beam, then separate the warp so that the unbroken end loop can be removed either by twisting or cutting, which act of it self can cause other broken ends and/or smudging or damaging the warp, then slipping the repair heddle over the heddle bars, which of itself is difiicult to do in the middle of a full set of threaded heddles, then re-enter the warp end through the eye of the new replacement huddle and tie the ends together, and finally adjust the warp and start the loom, an operation for which even an expert usually requires about five minutes.

By contrast, an object of the invention is to provide what may be termed and is hereinafter referred to as a lock-on repair head, the use of which in the replacement of a broken heddle involves merely stopping the loom, breaking or cutting off with pliers or cutters the broken end loop slightly below the bottom of the loop or the upper and lower eye, inserting the abbreviated end through the one or more apertures in the repair head, until a short end portion of said heddle projects above the shoulder of said repair head, and then bending said heddle end reversely around said shoulder, and pinching it tightly so as to minimize the aggregate thickness of the repair head and the bent portion of the heddle, then slipping the open end of the repair head over the heddle bar,

as by temporarily deflecting the free end of the hooked portion, and again starting the loom.

Another and more specific object is to provide a repair head, that directed shoulder, a bar-receiving portion and a body portion provided with two or more vertically spaced apertures or cutouts, through which the abbreviated end portion of a heddle is alternately inserted until its free end projects slightly above said shoulder, said upwardly projecting end portion being thence bent reversely and closely about said shoulder, While engagement of the opposite surfaces and edges of said heddle with the sides of said apertures prevent said repair head from turning angularly with respect to and out of alignment with said heddle.

Still another and more specific object is to provide a repair head for heddle bars, comprising a bar-receiving portion and a body portion, that terminates upwardly in a shoulder and is provided with a pair of vertically spaced apertures defining an ofiset portion, in combination with a heddle that extends through said apertures upon one side of said body portion and upon the opposite'side of said offset portion, and whose upper end initially projects above and is reversely bent around and closely about said shoulder, to prevent separation between and/or angular shifting of said head with respect to said heddle bar.

With these and other objects in mind, the invention comprises further details of construction and operation, which are hereinafter fully brought out in the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a repair head comprising one embodiment of the invention in which a single heddle-receiving aperture is provided; Fig. 2 is an elevational view of the opposite side of said repair head operatively secured to the upper edge portion of a heddle bar from which the eye or loop end portion has been removed; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is an elevational View of amodified form of repair head provided with a pair of vertically spaced apertures between which the body portion of the head is oiiset to permit dicomprises an upwardly rect passage of said heddle through said apertures without bending; Fig. is a vertical section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a vertical section on the line 6-6 of Fig. '7; Fig. 'I is an elevational view similar to Fig. 4 but showing this form of repair head operatively attached to the upper end of an ordinary heddle shank, or to the upper end of a silk type heddle, which is of uniform width throughout its end portions; Fig. 8 is a side elevational view of the upper portion of a so-called silk type heddle; Fig. 9 is a similar view of the shank thereof after the apertured end portion has been removed; Fig. 10 shows a further modified form of repair head similar in many respects to that shown in Figs. 4 to 7, but with vertically spaced, transversely extending slits, instead of apertures from which material is actually removed; Fig. 11 is a vertical section on the line II-II of Fig. 10; and Fig. 12 is an enlarged horizontal section on the line I2-- I2 of-Fig. 10.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, a blank is shown as comprising a bar-receiving portion, that for purposes of illustration and in usual practice comprises a side shank I, having an upper hooked end 2 from which extends a downwardly projecting tongue 3, while the lower end of said blank comprises a laterally extending body portion 4, that in the case of a hooked bar-engageable portion partially closes or obstructs the entrance to the normally bar-occupying space, and thereby provides an upwardly directed shoulder 5. Said body portion is subdivided to provide a depending lower section 6, having a preferably rectangular aperture I. -As the metal of this blank is quite thin, it need not necessarily be scored, but whether scored or not it is folded along the line 8, which substantially coincides with the initially upper edge of said aperture. This blank may be supplied to mills with the single fold "on the line 8, if preferred, in which casethe lower section B should be at an acute angle with its supporting body portion 4, to facilitate its being quickly pressed against said body portion.

To apply this type of repair head to a heddle,

it is assumed that the heddle has parallel lateral edges in the first place, or if provided with a transversely widened loop end, the removal of the broken loop portion will be below the level at which their divergence begins. The abbreviated end is then inserted in and. passed upwardly through the aperture I, until the upwardly projecting end extends the desired distance beyond thev level of the shoulder 5, about which it is then reversely bent closely and tightly by means of pliers or other suitable tool, and the initially lower section 6, now in divergently upwardly extending position, bent into tightly close parallelism with said heddle end and body portion 4.

Referring to Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7, a modified form of repair head is here shown as comprising a vertically uninterrupted side shank II], from the uppermost portion of which extends laterally a reversely directedparallel hook portion II, that terminates downwardly at I2 short of the lower end of the side It, to provide an intervening space adapted to pass the heddle bar as it enters its normal position beneath said hook. The lower portion of said head comprises a laterally extending body portion I3, that provides an upwardly directed horizontally extending shoulder I4. Said body portion is provided with a plurality of vertically spaced rectangular apertures I5, and is corrugated so that that portion between said apertures is offset laterally'to 4 one side of and in spaced relation with the plane of said upper hooked portion and the lowermost portion of said body below the lowermost of said apertures.

In this manner a straightaway path is provided for the insertion and passage of the upper end of the heddle IE5, or the abbreviated shank portion of the same, so that it can pass upwardly from one side of said body portion of the repair head, through the lower of the two apertures shownto-the opposite side of said body portion, thence through the upper of said apertures to the first side of said head, and thence extend above the shoulder I4 about which it is reversely bent and clinched at IT. With this construction, when the improved repair head has been secured to the ;end of a heddle, both the frictional grip of the reversely turned end of the latter about the shoulder of the former, together with the upward tension of the heddle bar, tends to maintain the heddle in its lowermost position with respect to said head, while the same interengagement prevents the two elements from separating, and'the engagement of the heddle shank with the sides of the two apertures prevents either or both lateral and angular displacement of one with respect to the other, and thereby maintains them in fixed,'rigid alignment.

Referring to-Figs. 8 to 12, there is here shown a so-called silk type heddle I8, that at its end is of uniform width, and is provided with a 1ongitudinally elongated aperture IQ for the reception of the usual "slender heddle bar that characterized machines using this type of heddle. Such heddles, being even more slender or narrow than the ordinary types, wear through, break, or snap at their apertured ends, and in order to repair them by the new method and equip them with'a repair head of the new type, one or both ofthe apertured ends arecut off approximately'at the level indicated by the line 20, to make-the shortened length indicated by Fi 9.

Referring to Figs. 10-12, the repair head here shown is numer'aled as in Figs. 4-7, except that instead ofa pair of the apertures I5, a pair of vertically spaced, parallel, transversely extending slits or apertures 22 are provided, and these together afford a construction whereby the central portioriZt-of the base 24 may be forced laterally to one side of the plane of said base, or instead those parts of said base above and below said slits can be forced to one side of the plane of the upper hooked portion, while that portion of the base between said slits is forced tothe opposite side of said plane, so as to thereby create in either case a straightaway path for the insertion upwardly of a heddle 25, the end 25 of which after being extended above the base 'is reversely bent around said shoulder I4, and crimped so as to thereby effect a locking interengagement of the two members similar to that shown in Figs. 3, 6 and '7, but with the elimination of the prerequisite step of first removing material to provide the apertures I5.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a bar-receiving portion, and a body portion having an aperture and an upwardly directed shoulder, said heddle shank extending through said aperture and its end portion being reversely bent around said shoulder.

2. The combination of a heddle shank,'with a repair head comprising a bar-receiving portion, and a body portion provided with apair of aligned apertures separated by an offset'portion, and also having an upwardly directed shoulder, said heddle shank extending through said apertures and its end portion being reversely bent around said shoulder.

3. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a bar-receiving portion, and a body portion having a plurality of vertically spaced apertures and being provided with an intermediate offset portion defined by and between said vertically spaced apertures, and an upwardly directed shoulder, said heddle shank extending through said apertures and its end portion being reversely bent around said shoulder.

4. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a hook portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, a body portion having an upwardly directed shoulder, and an initially depending portion, means defining an aperture extending through said head at the joint between said body and depending portions, said heddle shank extending through said aperture and being reversely bent over said shoulder, and said depending portion being bent into parallelism with said body portion.

5. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, a body portion having an upwardly directed shoulder, and a depending portion having an aperture, said heddle shank extending through said aperture and being reversely bent over said shoulder.

6. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, and a depending base portion provided with an upwardly directed shoulder and a pair of apertures, that portion of said base between said apertures being offset laterally to one side of the plane of the remainder of said base, to provide a straightaway path for a rectilinear heddle shank upon one side of said base, between said apertures and upon the opposite side of said base above and below said pair of apertures, said heddle shank extending through said apertures and having its free end portion bent over said shoulder, to prevent its accidental separation from said repair head.

7. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, and a depending base portion provided with an upwardly directed shoulder and a pair of apertures, that portion of said base between said apertures being offset laterally to one side of the plane of the remainder of said base, to provide a straightaway path for said heddle shank upon one side of said base, between said apertures and upon the opposite side of said base above and below said pair of apertures, and the upper free end portion of said 6 heddle shank extending through said apertures and being reversely bent over and about the upper edge of said base.

8. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, and a base portion having an upwardly directed shoulder and provided with a pair of vertically spaced transverse severances permitting the central portion of said base between said severances to be offset laterally to one side of and in spaced relation with the plane of adjacent portions of said base, to provide a straightaway path for a heddle shank, which is positioned upon one side of said base between said apertures and upon the opposite side of said base above said apertures, and having its upper free end portion bent across said shoulder.

9. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, and a base portion having an upwardly directed shoulder and provided with a pair of transverse severances permitting the central portion of said base between said severances to be offset laterally to one side of and in spaced relation with the plane of an adjacent portion of said base, to provide a straightaway path for a rectilinear heddle shank, which is positioned upon one side of said base between said apertures and upon the opposite side of an adjacent portion of said base, and the upper free end of said heddle shank being reversely bent over and about said shoulder.

10. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a hook portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, a body portion provided with a plurality of vertically spaced apertures and having an upwardly directed shoulder, said heddle shank extending through said apertures and having its adjacent free end portion reversely bent over said shoulder, and the lateral limits of said apertures preventing transverse shifting of said shank with respect to said shoulder.

11. The combination of a heddle shank, with a repair head comprising a bar-receiving portion,

and a body portion provided with a plurality of vertically spaced apertures and an intermediate oifset portion between saidspaced apertures, said repair head further having an upwardly directed shoulder, said heddle shank extending through said apertures and having an end portion reversely bent about said shoulder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Date 

